Feed & Additive Magazine Issue 4 May 2021

NEWS 24 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE May 2021 Global approach needed to achieve net zero in livestock production A global approach and greater collaboration will help the industry meet net carbon targets according to speakers at the recent British Society of Animal Science (BSAS) conference who called on the supply chain to work in partnership, both between sectors and internationally, to achieve net zero. A t a keynote session sponsored by Devenish, speakers from the UK, Brazil, Africa, and Australia agreed that the major factors restricting the UK's progress in the move to net zero were nei- ther unique to the UK, nor to a specific sector of UK agriculture. These issues include the development of new technologies to reduce carbon footprint, the acceleration of the widescale uptake of current and new technologies to mitigate greenhouse gas pro- duction, and the need to communicate more effec- BBFAW launches its ninth annual report about animal welfare The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) launched its ninth annual report. According to the report, more than a third (39%) of the 150 companies covered by the BBFAW remain in the bottom two tiers, however, offering little or no information on their approach to farm animal welfare. T he Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW), the leading global measure of policy commitment, performance, and disclosure on animal welfare in food compa- nies, has launched its ninth an- nual report. The 2020 Bench- mark, supported by Compassion in World Farming and World Animal Protection, analyzed 150 global food companies. For the first time in the Bench- mark’s history, food producers and manufacturers are now the highest scoring sub-sector on farm animal welfare with an over- all average score of 38%, com- pared to scores of 35% for re- tailers and wholesalers, and 31% for restaurants and bars. Thirteen producers and manufacturers im- proved their ranking by at least one tier between 2019 and 2020, compared to nine retailers and wholesalers, and just one com- pany in the ‘restaurants and bars’ sub-sector. Food producers and manu- facturers are also now the most represented sub-sector in Tiers 1 and 2 of the Benchmark, with twelve companies – Barilla, Car- gill, Cranswick, Danish Crown, Groupe Danone, Fonterra, Hil- ton Food Group, Marfrig, Nestlé, Noble Foods, Premier Foods and Unilever – showing leadership on farm animal welfare. These com- panies represent all geographic re- gions (Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America and UK) covered by the Benchmark. More than a third (39%) of the 150 companies covered by the BBFAW remain in the bot- tom two tiers, however, offering little or no information on their approach to farm animal welfare. In fact, 31 global food companies remain without an overarching farm animal welfare policy.